“Anxiety” Emptied eyes stare, reflect tender tension trying to tear through the terror from within, project shadows hanging precariously above vulture carved cheekbones weighted with tired turmoil. And you will glance down at your reddened raw ravaged palms and notice weeds sprouting from underneath your fingernails, their resilient roots pushing pushing, pushing like the voice in your head beckoning you to the edge, spouting reckless irrationalities as promiscuous as the fountain of life.   “Fuck. You fucked up. You fucked up. you fucked up, you piece of shit, you stupid useless piece of shit.” Shut up shut up shut up. Stop. Breath. Now do it again. Breath. Keep breathing breathing breathing. This is what I was meant to do. This is what I’m here for, I’m here for you they’ll say. They’ll keep you alive, if only so you’ll keep pushing the wind out of your lungs faster and faster […]

Book Jacket Artist Statement My book jacket presents a short story I wrote about a guy in a very dissociative state that ends up driving to a cliff in the middle of the night. So on my book jacket, I drew a silhouette of a car on a cliff on top of a starry night sky background to symbolize the setting of my book. The lone car silhouette also represents my main character’s isolation and loneliness. I used a dark color scheme to create this solemn but mysterious mood. I think my book jacket is successful at accurately representing my book and giving people who see it and haven’t read my story an accurate impression of what it is about. To create my book jacket, I used Adobe Photoshop, a bit of Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. I came across some struggles, for example, I envisioned my book jacket with a photograph […]